Posted on 06/14/2008 11:43:09 AM PDT by LibWhacker
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A couple accused of tying their 13-year-old son to a tree for two nights to punish him for disobedience has been charged with murder in his death, authorities said Friday.
Brice Brian McMillan, 41, of Macclesfield, told a deputy that the child was being disobedient and was forced to sleep outside Tuesday while tied to a tree, the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office said. The teenager was released Wednesday morning but again tied up that night for bad behavior, authorities said.
The boy was left tied to the tree until the following afternoon when his stepmother found him unresponsive, Sheriff James Knight said. Knight said authorities believe the boy was bound to the tree with plastic ties and possibly other kinds of material.
"An adult couldn't get out of those," he said.
Temperatures in the area rose to above 90 degrees on Thursday afternoon, with a low of 73, according to the National Weather Service. Knight would not discuss any details on the cause of death, saying an autopsy was being conducted at the state chief medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill.
The sheriff also didn't have details on why the boy was being punished, although he said deputies were investigating whether he had run away.
Dwight Jefferson, an emergency responder with Pinetops Rescue Squad who was first on the scene, said he did not know the cause of the child's death.
"What we found was a 13-year-old laying on the ground - CPR being done by his father," Jefferson said. "Then we took over."
Knight said the boy was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
McMillan and Sandra Elizabeth McMillan, 36, also have been charged with felony child abuse. Two other children at the home, ages 7 and 9, have been placed in the custody of the Department of Social Services, authorities said. Knight said he does not know of any past allegations of child abuse in the family.
He also said he could not release the name of the boy.
The McMillans are being held in the Edgecombe County Detention Center under no bond and are scheduled for a first appearance in court Monday. The sheriff's office said they did not know if the couple had an attorney.
Macclesfield is about 90 miles east of Durham.
I’m inclined to agree.
Though I wonder what the tale from their side is about how impossible the teens were.
Still, no excuse for their actions.
Yes, we can gang up on the monsters. Does ganging up on the monster inside us require a village? nevermind :) I’m kidding. But the support of witnesses is invaluable.
I admire folks who truly recognize those trying to change, from feeding to starving the monster. They’re in a position to help, and they save lives.
Thanks thanks.
No need to thank me; I might call on you some day!
would be happy to do what I could with whatever breath and energy and time available.
Blessings,
No. The Government is not always evil and the Bad Guy. It depends on the character of the persons or the group of persons doing the governing or administering. To keep a country, a city, a county or a state going and not collapsing into chaos, there are a few certain jobs that have to get done by somebody, and to expect the Job Fairy to do them by magic is not realistic.
Years ago, I worked for the “Government” at NASA, in the Valve Unit of the Saturn V Lunar Landing project (in a very menial clerk typist’s job) set in place to put men on the moon. It took a lot of people doing their individual and most times menial jobs (and, incidentally, inventing a lot of serendipidous innovations that have benefitted mankind in the process) to get that big job done. Things in the world in this modern age are just too complicated to expect that things will get done with a twitch of Samantha’s nose.
[WRAL] Macclesfield, N.C. — Tyler Gene McMillan was tied to a tree at his house for 18 hours before he died, according to arrest warrants made public during his father and stepmother’s first court appearance Monday on murder charges.
The 13-year-old’s father, Brice McMillan, 41, wept during most of the brief proceeding. Neither he nor his wife, Sandra McMillan, 36, acknowledged the other while in court; they have retained separate attorneys.
Reading from the warrants, District Judge Joseph Harper said the boy had bruises on his wrists, cuts over his entire body and was missing flesh on his buttocks from being tied to the tree.
Meanwhile Monday, Tyler was buried next to his mother and remembered by family and friends as a boy who enjoyed reading, karate, professional wrestling and being outdoors fishing and playing with his cousins.
[AP] Arrest warrants for both McMillans said the child sustained “bruising to the wrist, cuts to entire body, missing flesh from buttocks, results from being tied to a tree for approximately 18 hours resulting in death.”
The warrants didn’t reveal a specific cause of death. An autopsy is pending at the state’s chief medical examiner’s office in Chapel Hill.
WFMY news says his funeral was held today in Greenville, NC
They would have knew that any neighbor spotting a boy tied to the tree like that - whether in the middle of the night or in the heat of the day - would do something about it - they would go closer to investigate, go speak to his parents or call the police. For sure it wasn't a case of kids playing cowboys and Indians.
I think the stepmother did not like him at all and turned the father against him.
http://coshoctontribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS01/80616020
Patricia Shrock, 57, lives a half-mile up the road from the residence and owns Pat's Style Corner in Pinetops. She said the first time she met the couple face-to-face was two months ago, when she was working in her front yard flower garden.
Shrock said she saw the 7- and 9-year-old children roller-blading with Sandra McMillan that evening, and that Brice McMillan followed behind them, jogging. She said the first conversation with Sandra McMillan lasted around 15-20 minutes.
"She said, 'I'm so glad to meet you,'" Shrock said, adding that she assured her the children were not being truant from school, that they were home-schooled.
Shrock also said that McMillan mentioned their other child, but only that "he doesn't get out much."
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Also they had a dog which was allowed to run loose and bother the neighbors which shows they were much easier going towards the dog than the oldest boy:
Carolyn Pollard, 51, lives across the road from the McMillan residence, and she described the family as "kind of secluded, to themselves." The first time she met them face-to-face was only a month ago, she said, when the couple's golden labrador was loose and "agitating" her dog.
A week after that incident, Pollard said the McMillans' dog was loose again, but that this time the dog knocked her over while she was carrying a bag of groceries into her house. She said she left the McMillans a "nice" note in their mailbox explaining what had happened to her. After that, she said "(the couple) didn't speak to me anymore, didn't wave to me."
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Roller-blading, jogging, a big hyper dog they let run loose, shunning behavior to a neighbor who nicely mentioned being knocked down by their dog...they certain sound like a family terrorized by the 13-year-old. NOT!
lainie, thank you for the updates. The evil of these two is sickening...how that poor child suffered...may young Tyler be at peace with his mother now...and may these two evil ‘parents’ get the justice they deserve.
Gee. Looking at this situation, the Wicked Stepmother in “Cinderella” looks good up side this woman. I am at a loss for words . .
Reading the info that joan found got me wondering. Is it possible that Tyler was somehow learning (or otherwise) disabled, and the parents were at a complete loss as to how to work with him? Complete & utter speculation of course.
He was buried beside his mother, who died of cancer in 2004, in the family cemetery. The teen began his education at Greenville Christian Academy and then attended Trinity Christian School.
"We would like to thank the many friends and family who have shown support for us during our time of loss," the family said in a statement to the press. "We will miss Tyler very much and are in shock, disbelief and unbearable grief."
he was not homeschooled?
The following is what someone commenting to the news said, and though you can't automatically believe any poster, what he says seems to fit in with the information given so far. (And if what he says is true it shows why the boy may have been unhappy - he likely missed living with his grandparents who he'd lived with for years, and he had uncles and cousins who he spent a lot of time with, apparently. It also shows there was a home/homes available for them to send him to if they were truly at their wits end - back his grandparents or at one of his uncles' homes. Perhaps they tied him up because he kept wanting/attempted to run back to Florida.)
By "rruss":
...Brice's first wife died to cancer 4 yrs ago and he was so distraught that his parents raised these two until last yr…Tyler was a student of mine in our local homeschool co-op and was definitely a grade or two ahead of his age. After talking to his uncles the other night, I found out Tyler was an avid reader and read many books ahead of his "grade" level. They were registered with the state or they would not have been allowed to participate in our local homeschool support group.
Oh how terribly sad. What in the world went wrong.
911 call released in case of NC teen tied to tree
MACCLESFIELD, N.C. - Two callers didn't answer a 911 dispatcher's repeated questions about what a 13-year-old boy was doing before he stopped breathing on a tape released Tuesday by investigators, who have said the teen was tied to a tree for two nights.
"Our little boy stopped breathing," a woman tells the dispatcher. Later she pleads, "Please hurry. Please hurry."
Brice Brian McMillan, 41, and his wife Sandra Elizabeth McMillan, 36, of Macclesfield are accused of killing their son, Tyler, by tying him to a tree for two nights for punishment. The Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office wouldn't immediately confirm whether they believe the callers are the McMillans but said the recording was related to the case.
The dispatcher repeatedly asked the woman and later a man what the child was doing before he stopped breathing, but neither respond. The man said the boy did not have any medical problems. Toward the end of the call, neither responded to repeated questions from the dispatcher as they apparently performed CPR on the teen, who later died at a hospital.
The county sheriff's office has said Brice McMillan told a deputy the teen was tied to a tree and forced to sleep outside last Tuesday because he was being disobedient. The teen was released Wednesday morning, but again tied up that night for bad behavior.
The boy's stepmother found him the following afternoon near the home in this community about 60 miles east of Raleigh, authorities said.
The McMillans were both charged Monday with murder and felony child abuse.
link to 9-1-1 audio:
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/old_14689___article.html/year_boy.html
I haven’t listened (and won’t) but someone else might like to hear it.
[An update from 7/3/2008. His next court appearance is in December but hers will be this Friday. But I don’t understand why there’s a ‘probable cause’ hearing looming. There isn’t probable cause enough, with their dead son and statements they’ve made about how he got that way?]
http://lorain.oh.networkofcare.org/dv/news/detail.cfm?articleID=19345
N.C. Child Death
Hearing Postponed
The Daily Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) - July 03, 2008
TARBORO, N.C.—Brice and Sandra McMillan’s probable cause hearing today in connection with the death of 13-year-old Tyler McMillan has been postponed.
Sandra McMillan’s next court date will be Aug. 7. Brice McMillan’s next appearance in Edgecombe County District Court will be Dec. 27.
The couple each face one count of first-degree murder and one count of felony child abuse with serious bodily injury.
Arrest warrants for Brice, 41, and Sandra McMillan, 36, stated the boy was found with bruises on his wrists, cuts on his entire body and missing flesh from his buttocks.
Tyler McMillan was unresponsive when a sheriff’s deputy found him tied to a tree at 1110 Felton Farm Road in Macclesfield at 4:30 p.m. June 12.
He was taken to Heritage Hospital in Tarboro, where he was pronounced dead. Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight said he had been left tied to the tree for two nights before his death.
Knight said Brice McMillan was taken into custody at the residence on June 12 while Sandra McMillan was taken into custody later that night in Farmville by the Farmville Police Department.
While Brice McMillan’s next appearance is in District Court, Sandra McMillan will make an appearance in Edgecombe County Superior Court on her count of first-degree murder. Her count of felony child abuse will be heard in District Court.
The couple’s first Edgecombe County court appearance was June 16. They retained separate attorneys at that hearing, with Greenville’s Keith Williams representing Sandra McMillan and Raleigh’s Whit Powell representing Brice McMillan.
The couple still have separate attorneys, but Sandra McMillan is now represented by Wilson’s Tom Sallenger.
The Edgecombe County District Attorney’s Office would not comment on the case.
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